Netflix has grown exponentially in India over the past year, thanks largely to the affordable data packs offered by Reliance Jio. The carrier has already earned a lot of accolades from various sectors for its plans and offerings that have allowed millions of Indians to surf the net and talk to their friends and family without burning a hole in their pockets, and now, it is the turn of Netflix CEO, Reed Hastings, to shower his praises on the company for its “transformational network”.
In an interview to The Economic Times, Hastings lavished high praise on the Mukesh Ambani-led company, going so far as to say that every country needs a Reliance Jio. According to him, “Reliance Jio has been a transformational network in India and has brought down data cost massively. There are other people around the world having that kind of impact and can get people to use internet more. We hope someone would do a Reliance Jio in every other country”.
Talking about Netflix’s plans in the country, Hastings said that India is an extremely important market for the company, given its well-documented story-telling traditions and a thriving movie industry. According to him, the company’s subscription-based revenue model can complement India’s cable TV industry that relies almost entirely on advertisements for revenues.
Netflix is betting big on India, and is planning to reach 100 million viewers in the country in the near future. Towards that end, the company is working on bringing a whole bunch of new Indian original series to its platform. The company recently announced three new India-based titles – Leila, Ghoul and Crocodile – in addition to four others that were announced earlier, including Sacred Games, Selection Day, Again and Bard of Blood.
